When Television first disbanded in 1978, I had already written a number of
songs which became the basis of Alchemy. I had wanted to do a record of a
different tambre than the two Television records, more Pop, sentimental and
personal. Television was under contract to Elektra records both individually
and as a group, so when the band broke up both Tom and I went on to make solo
records.

Alchemy was recorded at Bearsville studios in Woodstock NY. This
was the studio owned by Bob Dylan's manager Albert Grossman. My A&R person
wanted me to record in the country to keep me away from certain temptations
existing in the city. So I took the temptations with me. The A&R person
also suggested the producer. The most interesting story about the record is
that one day Fred Smith woke me up telling me that the producer had locked
himself in the studio and was putting keyboard sounds on the record. We had
had a discussion about this and I was very against keyboards being on the
record. Nonetheless, when I went down and knocked on the studio he wouldn't
let me in, and I could hear the cheesy sounds of his crappy synthesizer
through the door.

I immediately called the record company and tried to fire
him, but when they called him he told them that he was saving my record from
me, and that I was a mess. The truth be known, I was half a mess. So
production stopped for six weeks while we tried to sort it out. The record
company informed me that my A&R person had arranged for him to be paid in
full, and if I wanted a new producer I could pay for it myself. End result:
keyboards on the record. With all of the travails around the recording, it
still manages to have some lovely moments on it. Unfortunately, it is
currently out of print. There is an e-mail campaign under foot to get
Elektra to rerelease it.

I would love to get my hands on the master tapes and remix it and remaster it, but Elektra hasn't budged yet. If you'd like to join the campaign, you
can go to any of the Television sites and they will direct you.